"The Money"

Louisville trio Young Widows play heavy music without a postal code: their attack is hard and cruel and loud and lean, all hard surfaces, and Evan Patterson's conversational vocals sit in the middle of the mix like lemon juice slowly curdling milk. They get called "post-hardcore" as often as they get called "punk", which should tell you that their attack is going to find its way under your expectations to strike you somewhere soft. "The Money" is sardonic and brutally to-the-point, a laundry list of woes from a bloodshot-eyed narrator: "Recommended surgery/ The money I need first/ Mother sold her mansion/ Yes father went back to church/ My kids sold their records for less than half of what they're worth/ I spent their money on traveling/ Said my health has never came first." A two-note bass riff heaves. Patterson pants: "I woke. Hurt. The Next Day," and then the song shudders to a stop like a beleaguered Dodge expiring on an off-ramp.